Stendan Snapshots
by Sammi-Loves
Summary: Short, fluffy glimpses into a Stendan relationship following a hypothetical reunion.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **Fluffy, random snapshots from the hypothetical future Stendan relationship we will probably never see. Hope you enjoy!

They lasted almost a whole month without arguing this time around. It was a new record.

"Brendan! I can't believe you sometimes!" Ste shouted, storming into the office of Chez Chez and slamming the door, ignoring Joel's screeching from across the bar with practised ease.

"Stephen, always a pleasure," Brendan smirked, his feet propped up on the desk. "What can I do for you on this… _lovely_ afternoon? Shouldn't you be at work?"

Ste stopped in front of the desk, his arms crossed and his mouth stern. His uniform for the deli had been thrown on haphazardly and his usually perfectly coiffed hair lay flat on his head. "Just shut it, Brendan! You turned my alarm off again, didn't you?"

Brendan's face automatically transformed into an innocent, 'Who, me?' expression that wasn't fooling anyone. He opened his mouth to respond, but Ste cut him off with a glare before he could say anything. He rolled his eyes and swung his legs off the desk, standing up and walking over to where Ste was standing.

"No, just…" Ste fumbled, stepping backwards and pouting. "You can't keep doing this, Brendan. I need to work, me. You can't keep me away from the deli just because you're jealous!"

Brendan laughed, a maniacal glint in his eye. "Jealous? Me? Have you seen this?" He asked, gesturing to himself and turning slowly, emphasising the perfect cut of his suit trousers. Ste's eyes lingered on his arse and he was hard pressed to stop his mouth from turning up at the corners. He rearranged his features into a suitably stern expression when Brendan turned back to face him.

"Me and Doug have been broken up for ages! Why are you being like this again now?" Ste asked, huffing. Brendan sighed and leant back against the desk, looking at some point just over Ste's head.

"I didn't like the way he was looking at you yesterday." He glowered. "It looked like he was undressing you with his eyes, and he liked what he saw."

"Err, of course he liked what he saw. I've been working out, me." Ste said, flexing the muscles in him arm proudly, and internally grinning. He secretly loved it when Brendan got all possessive and jealous, even if it did mean that Doug would be in a strop with him for missing work again. It was worth it.

Sure enough, Brendan eyes darkened and he grabbed Ste to him, causing Ste to struggle half-heartedly before relenting. "Mine." Brendan breathed into Ste's ear, nuzzling at his neck and locking his arms around his waist.

Ste couldn't stop the smile from blossoming on his face as he wrapped his arms around Brendan's torso. He couldn't resist Brendan at all when he was like this, all possessive and playful. It was everything he had ever wanted, and he couldn't actually bring himself to believe that it was actually happening. They were in a real, honest-to-God relationship that people actually _knew_ about and it hadn't blown up in their faces yet. It was amazing.

He rested his head on Brendan's shoulder and sighed contentedly. They stood like that for a beat, relishing in the togetherness that was still so thrilling and new, even after several months together; the moment peaceful and utterly perfect… until Brendan, obviously bored with the sentimental interlude and wanting to move onto something a lot more energetic, bit down hard on his neck. Ste jumped away, pouting and rubbing ineffectively at the sore spot.

Brendan began laughing wildly, his face open and carefree. Ste glared playfully and turned to leave the office, just about getting to the door before Brendan tugged him back by the arm. "You're just too irresistible for your own good, Stephen." He said, tapping him on the nose.

Ste grumbled for a bit before wrapping his arms around Brendan's neck, leaning up and kissing him passionately. Brendan smiled into the kiss imagining poor Douglas, all alone at the deli, pining away for the boy he had pushed up against the door; the one with the enormous, unmissable love bite on his neck, the one whose shirt he was tearing at impatiently. The one who was unmistakeably, irretrievably **his**.

He always gets his own way.

Outside the office, the way-too-familiar bangs begin to emerge from the office as Joel scurries down the stairs, knowing full well what is about to happen, and just what disgusting, soul-destroying sounds he will hear if he stays.

_This_, he thinks to himself, shuddering, _is why I really cannot stand Ste Hay. _


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **Snapshot two :)

(The first five of these have previously been posted on my tumblr: sammi-loves. tumblr. com (just remove the gaps)).

* * *

Ste always finds himself both utterly repulsed and strangely turned on whenever he sees Brendan eating.

There's a certain animalistic quality to it; a ferocity. His entire focus is consumed on one task, his eyes burning, his throat rhymically swallowing. Ste couldn't help but be reminded of other, more carnal moments where Brendan was completely possessed by one task, the same lustful glint in his eyes; sometimes, even, the same delicious swallowing motion. It made him want to push the plate away from Brendan's greedy hands and jump on him; ask to be eaten instead.

Of course, he valued his life too much to ever get between Brendan and food.

Brendan was currently clad only in his boxers and sitting at the shiny new breakfast bar in the shiny new kitchen in the shiny new flat (that Ste still couldn't believe they owned), shovelling the remnants of Ste's new stew recipe into his mouth with an alarming speed. He always ate like he hadn't been fed for months, the spoon moving so fast to his mouth that broth and pieces of food were left clinging to his moustache, looking like the only survivors of the out and out war that was Brendan Brady's mealtimes.

Ste felt as if he spent half his life wiping ineffectively at Brendan's mouth, trying to clean up his mess, whilst Brendan batted at his hands with nothing but a patronising, "Thank you, Dear," for his troubles. Brendan was a ridiculously messy eater, far, far worse than even Lucas (who, after becoming completely infatuated with 'Uncle Brendan' had also decided to forgo the cutlery that Amy and Ste had patiently taught him to use, in favour of basically diving face first into his food at any given opportunity).

Amy was furious.

Brendan thought it was hilarious, often egging Lucas on whenever Amy's back was turned by slipping him sweets whenever he was particularly bad. After spending so much time at Ste's old flat, both the kids had become accustomed to Brendan being around at all times. Lucas, in particular, adored Brendan and would spend hours imitating his movements and toddling around after him. At one point, Lucas had become so besotted with Brendan that he had attempted to draw an imitation moustache onto his top lip with a permanent marker that someone had left on the living room floor. It was quite a sight the next morning on the kid's school run: Brendan, in his usual suit-shirt combo, carrying Lucas, also decked out in a suit (that Brendan had bought him for his last birthday and which they were hard pressed to get him out of), his pen-moustache faded slightly from Amy's persistent scrubbing; Brendan teaching him the patented 'Brendan Brady Scowl™' and making him try it out on unsuspecting passersby. It was adorable.

At first, Ste was a tiny bit jealous of the bond that Brendan obviously formed with Lucas, feeling the horrible gut-wrenching feeling that he always got whenever he thought about his kids not needing him anymore, but he soon snapped out of his insecurities. Brendan, for all his previous shortcomings, was fantastic with the kids and Ste knew that he could trust Brendan with their lives. It took a great weight off his shoulders, knowing that he had someone else to rely on to keep the kids safe no matter what.

Ste was wrenched from his musings when Brendan, finished licking his own plate, reached out and stole Ste's bowl from under his fork without a word. Ste knew from experience that where Brendan and food were involved, nothing and no one was safe. Brendan had no concept of 'this plate does not belong to me and therefore I should leave it alone.' Anything was up for grabs in the free-for-all that constituted Brendan's mealtime. Ste didn't even bother fighting anymore, simply being happy that he actually managed to finish at least half of his portion before Brendan decided to conscript his portion to the Brady war on food.

Brendan, done with the food before Ste even had time to blink, dribbled the last of the stew onto the placemat trying to slurp the remains from the bottom of the bowl, emerging with a moustache completely coated with sauce and a satisfied grin on his face. Ste smiled, exasperated but happy with the sense of accomplishment he got from cooking for an appreciative audience, even one as undiscerning as Brendan.

It was messy and fast and all consuming, but so were they, and looking at a sated, half naked Brendan across the table at their brand new flat, Ste didn't think he'd ever been happier.


	3. Chapter 3

Ste has never really given any thought to the age gap between him and Brendan. It hadn't ever really seemed worthy of consideration, except in a 'experienced older man' kink kind of way that Ste had _definitely_ given an inordinate amount of consideration to, especially in his post-Doug era. There was no denying that being with someone older had its… advantages (although thinking on it, it may be being with Brendan that actually made all the difference).

Brendan had always awed and intimated Ste to a certain amount; he'd always seemed far more powerful, far more successful. But still, Ste had never really thought of him as being _older_, especially not since they both had kids. Being a parent had a funny way of making you feel, and act, far older than you actually were. Ste felt that he had grown up so much since Leah and Lucas had entered his life, that he could never really identify with other people his age. That's what had made his relationships with Noah and Doug so difficult; they were both still revelling in their youth and freedom and couldn't really understand the impact of having children.

Oh, they'd both tried, to varying degrees, but Ste had still always felt like the odd man out, never quite fitting in. Whilst they could go out with their friends every night and get drunk without a care, Ste constantly found himself standing in the corner, sober, waiting for a suitable moment to leave so he could be up in time for the school run in the morning.

So, really, Ste had always related far more to Brendan than any of his other boyfriends. He felt like he could actually _talk _about things that actually mattered to him and Brendan would understand, and not dismiss him, or think he was being a downer. It was refreshing.

That didn't mean that Brendan was as unconcerned with the age gap as he was, however. Since his last birthday, Brendan had become increasingly touchy about his age which amused Ste to no end and, of course, made him seek out ways to tease Brendan whenever possible. And, since he and Brendan had moved in together, he had discovered that there were a whole host of things about Brendan he had never noticed before that definitely showed his age.

Like the fact that he had actually referred to the customers at the club as "those young people" unthinkingly when describing his day, or the fact that he had a secret fondness for watching old episodes of Antiques Roadshow at four o'clock in the morning after getting in from work.

Recently, however, his favourite source of mockery had come from the discovery of Brendan's ever decreasing eyesight and the glasses he had been forced to buy. Brendan had been squinting for months, but had point blank refused to see an optician despite Ste's repeated attempts to make him (partially to help him, and partially because it annoyed Brendan to no end). It wasn't until he had mucked up the fifth order for the club that he and Cheryl had managed to coerce him – despite his violent protests – to go.

It had been an interesting experience all round, really. Brendan had initially scared the poor technician so badly that he had been too afraid to correct the mistakes he made during his eye examination, and he looked like he was going to wet himself whenever he had to get near Brendan to adjust the strength of the lenses on Brendan's face.

Eventually, though, Brendan had been given his prescription and they had set about trying to find him a set of frames. Cheryl immediately began picking out the most ostentatious, ridiculous ones she could find; Ste searching for classic, old-people bi-focals on a chain for optimum mocking potential, and Brendan himself, standing in the corner, glaring hazily in their general direction.

They had eventually settled on a pair of plain black, rectangular frames (although 'settled' in this scenario had involved Brendan wrenching a set from the shelf at random, throwing them at the optician and storming out of the store, Ste and Cheryl obliviously still trying on the ugliest glasses they could find and laughing).

Brendan had sulked for days afterwards, shoving the case deep into a draw in their living room and completely refusing to wear them. It wasn't until almost a week later that Ste had found him, in front of the mirror, posing and pointing at his reflection in his new glasses. Ste could see why, the frames sat perfectly on his face and made his eyes look even more amazing than usual. Eventually, Brendan stopped winking at himself and spotted Ste's reflection, turning to face him with a smirk.

"Well, Stephen, what do you think?" He said, tilting his head slightly and playfully batting his eyes.

"They're all right for an old man, I suppose," Ste replied, the insult half-hearted as he drank in the sight before him. Trust Brendan to make such plain glasses look so utterly amazing.

Brendan chuckled, swaggering towards Ste with a purposeful look on his face. "Really? I think they look… fabulous," he said, coming to a halt less than a hair's breadth away. Ste's pupils began dilating instantly, his mouth dropping open slightly as he took in a shuddering breath. Glasses fetish, to add to his older man kink? Check. Definite check.

"It's nice to be able to see you properly again," Brendan murmured seductively into Ste's ear, the frames giving a deliciously cold touch to his flushed cheek. Ste couldn't help himself, forcefully pushing Brendan back onto the sofa, unbuckling his belt and ripping off his trousers before he even realised what he was doing. Brendan began undressing himself rapidly as well, struggling out of his jacket and reaching up to remove the glasses before Ste's hand quickly stopped him.

"No. Leave them on," he said, straddling Brendan and kissing him furiously.

No, he didn't mind the age gap at all.


End file.
